Determining the Feasibility of Adopting Technological Innovation to Enhance Service Delivery in Selected Johannesburg Health Institutions

Abstract

South African health institutions, particularly public hospitals are continuously oversubscribed and under-resourced which consequently puts pressure on the service delivery system and negatively affects the service experience of patients. As a way to address this problem, the researchers were looking to establish the feasibility of adopting technological innovation such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, cloud computing and web-applications in order to help enhance service delivery in Johannesburg health institutions. The researchers conducted a quantitative research and collected data from two public health institutions namely Charlotte Maxeke and Helen Joseph Hospital. An initial pilot study was conducted before the research was extended to a wider sample of 358 respondents. Results show that most patients generally have a positive perception on technology and are likely to consider making use technological-innovation provided they are relatively easy to use, accessible and not too complex. Results also suggest that security is a highly regarded factor that ultimately determines system-usage and technological acceptance. Technological innovations such as CRM systems, may go a long way in enhancing interaction between patients and health institutions which ultimately would result in the creation of more sustainable relationships between patients and health institutions. However in order to ensure that there is wide adoption of technological-innovation, it is essential for health institutions to ensure that the new innovations are easy to use and patient information is kept in a secure environment.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n25p148